Artocarpus heterophyllus Lam.

Taxonomy: Plantae > Tracheophyta > Magnoliopsida > Rosales > Moraceae > Artocarpus > A. heterophyllus

Description: Evergreen trees to 25 m high, bark 10-12 mm thick, blackish-grey, mottled with green and black, exfoliating in large thick flakes, exfoliated surface orange-red; blaze pinkish-yellow; exudation milky white latex; trunk with warty tubercles; branchlets glabrous. Leaves simple, alternate; stipules 3-5 cm long, lateral, ovate-lanceolate, sheathing, glabrous, cauducous; petiole 20-40 mm long, stout, grooved above, glabrous; lamina obovate, obovate-oblong, or elliptic-ovate, base acute, round or cuneate, apex acute or obtuse, margin entire, glabrous and shining above and scabrous beneath; lateral nerves 6-8 pairs, pinnate, prominent, arched, intercostae scalariform, prominent. Flowers unisexual, minute, yellowish-green, in spikes enclosed by spathe-like bracts, male from young branches, catkin narrow-cylindric; perianth 2-lobed, puberulous; stamen 1; filament somewhat flattened, stout; anthers ovate-oblong; female catkins from the trunk and mature branches, more massive, perianth with strongly projecting conical apex; ovary 0.3 mm, superior, globose-obovoid; style exserted; stigma spathulate. Fruit: sorosis oblong, tuberculate, tubercles conical yellowish-green. Fruiting perianth yellow to light orange, fleshy; seeds elliptic-oblong, smooth, glossy.

Flowering and Fruiting: November to April.

Uses: Fruit and seed commonly used in South Indian cuisine. Wood resistant to termites and used in carpentry and house building.

Cultivation: Widely cultivated in the tropics.

References

http://www.plantsoftheworldonline.org

https://indiabiodiversity.org